I SO loved reading all about your favorite Christmas movies! Sounds like we have A LOT in common! EXCEPT…I’m really not a fan of A Christmas Story AT.ALL. {don’t judge!!!!!} I tolerate it because Mr. Spouse is obsessed. He’s SO obsessed that he bought me this two years ago for Christmas. And NO…it was not a gag gift. That movie brings back memories of my sister. She would watch it for 24 hours straight every Christmas Eve and I would BEG her to turn it off!! I won’t lie…in recent years, it’s really grown on me, but it’s definitely not my favorite! SADSVILLE!!!! These are the ... Read More
Happy December
I’m having a sad little case of the Sunday blues. After being out of school for a week, I sure can’t wait to get back and see my babies, but I’m a little sad I won’t be waking up at 9 in the morning. I’m not ready for an alarm clock!!! I spent this past Friday shopping with my momma. Yes…we braved the Black Friday crowds. But I swear it wasn’t bad AT.ALL! This is one of my most favorite traditions. Just me & mom. It’s more about spending endless hours talking and laughing…& eating our weight in everything terrible…than it is about anything else. We could care less if we buy a ... Read More
Hello? Hello? Is Anybody There?
Hi friends. Maybe you remember me? I’m the girl who used to be semi good about blogging here at The First Grade Parade. Is anybody there? I’m convinced no one reads blogs anymore…or maybe just that no one reads this one. I’m sure it doesn’t help when I don’t post for a month :) Living in a small little town means that sometimes you don’t have internet access…for extended periods of time…even when you call your provider and practically beg for them to restore your service. {{Sigh}} So I enjoyed the temporary lapse in blogging. And when Internet service was restored, I kept on enjoying my break. ... Read More
This is How We CVC
I do realize that CVC isn’t a verb, just incase you were curious ;) However…I thought I’d share with you a few things we do in Room 206 to reinforce and practice identifying, creating, spelling, and reading CVC words. Blending and segmenting is such a tricky concept for some kids to grasp, so I try to integrate this skill as often as I can so that my kids are constantly being slammed with practice…even when they don’t realize it. One of the first things I like to do is help the kids build a visual image of what CVC words look like so that they can distinguish an easily decodable word from a sight word. We practiced sorting ... Read More
Pumpkins EVERYWHERE! And Making Connections
We’re learning all about pumpkins this week and the kids couldn’t be more thrilled!! I thought I’d share some of the fun we’re having incase you’re knee deep in pumpkin seeds, too! We started the week activating & growing our pumpkin schema. We read a few fun non-fiction pumpkin books, gathered new learning, and added our little fact seeds to our pumpkin chart. Did you know that pumpkins are fruit?! That was a “are-you-for-real?!?!” moment for the kids. We followed up our new learning with a little apples vs. pumpkins venn diagram. We reinforced a few key vocabulary words {similar, contrast, ... Read More
Last Week. And My Visual Plans.
Do you ever feel like the short weeks are always the longest?! Why is that?! Maybe because we were blessed with a full moon. It’s a thought :) We were off for Columbus Day last Monday and then we turned right around on Wednesday and left campus for our first field trip of the school year. We went to see a live performance of “The Cat in the Hat” at the theater and then headed to the city park for lunch and a little playtime. I was so excited to be both mom AND teacher for this field trip. My little nugget’s class was there, too! SO exciting :) Since we only had 3 full days in the classroom, ... Read More
Spider Week!
What is it about spiders that kids love SO much?! When I busted out our graph to start our unit of study on arachnids, the kids went CRAZY. In Abby’s words, 12 kinds of crazy. They were SO excited! I’m always floored by how much kids LOVE non-fiction. It seriously surprises me every.single.year. I see this with my own two boys. The gravitate towards non-fiction books ALL.THE.TIME. I love that. We started our week with the question, “Are you afraid of spiders?!” Me…notsomuch…unless they’re BIG and FURRY. Gross. They’re more creepy than scary and I say ... Read More
It’s Tuesday. That’s All.
It’s Tuesday, y’all. Is it too early in the week to say I’m beat? Because I’m {kinda} not lying. I am. But this iced tea is sorta makin’ life better. Especially since I’m drinking it from a mason jar. It’s OCTOBER {AMEN!!!!} and that means we’re starting the month with one of my favorite themes….SPIDERS!!!!!!!!! It’s spider week in Kindergarten and my kids are LOVING what they’re learning about our little arachnid friends. We’re especially loving our spider themed math tubs this week!! You can find these activities in my Cute or Creepy math tub packet. I was out of town this past weekend ... Read More
I Fell Asleep.
Remember last night when I was all, “I’ll announce 3 winners at random before bedtime!”. And then nothing. Crickets. My attempts at a giveaway = FAIL. But gosh darn if that couch of mine didn’t envelope me as soon as I sat down. And Jax kept my eyes focused and locked on his precious face. And then it happened. Sleep. A deep, deep, DEEP sleep. The kind that makes your husband go “uh….I married you?!” because the drooling and snoring just lose their appeal after 10+ years. But it was good, my friends. A GLORIOUS goodness. Full of rainbows, butterflies, and dreams that I was in a biker gang ... Read More
An Oldie, But Goodie
One of my favorite {& most stressful} things about teaching Kindergarten is welcoming a ton of different ability levels at the beginning of each year. I LOVE how much progress ALL the kids make in such a short amount of time and it’s AMAZING to see the growth they make in a year!!! Each year I totally change the way I teach. I don’t teach to the same kids/dynamics/personalities/abilities/interests/attention spans every year, so things HAVE to change. What worked one year might not be so fitting for the group I’m blessed with the next. I don’t really look back at old plans, copy & paste, and call it a ... Read More
